SWOPblogger

Caracas, March 4, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - A diplomatic stand-off between Colombia and its neighbors Ecuador and Venezuela, triggered by Colombia's military attack on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Ecuadorian territory, (which resulted in the deaths of 16 guerrillas, among them Raúl Reyes, the FARC second in command), intensified Tuesday as Venezuela closed its border with Colombia in response to Colombia's accusations that the Venezuelan government had funded the FARC.

Colombian National Police director Oscar Naranjo, claimed yesterday that documents allegedly found in three computers seized during Colombia's raid, show that the Venezuelan government has provided $300 million to the FARC and that the guerrilla group has acquired 50 kilograms of uranium. The Colombian government also claims that documents show links between Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and the FARC.

Both Ecuador and Venezuela dismissed the claims as "absolute lies" and have sent thousands of troops to their borders with Colombia and expelled Bogotá's ambassadors out of their countries. Venezuelan Agriculture Minister Elías Jaua, announced today that Venezuela has also taken measures to close its border with Colombia.

In an extraordinary session of the Organization of American States (OAS), today Venezuelan representative Jorge Valero said, "The Colombian government has lied blatantly. All of the accusations the Colombian government has made against Venezuela and Ecuador are false, totally false."

"They are trying to confuse international opinion in order to evade their own responsibility," he added.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whose government receives $600 million a year in military aid from the U.S. insisted today he was going to take Chavez to the International Criminal Court for "sponsoring and financing genocide" by allegedly providing money to the guerrillas.

Retired Venezuelan General, Alberto Müller Rojas described Colombia's "evidence" as an "exercise in falsification" and pointed out that "the only foreign government that finances the conflict in Colombia is the United States."

You gotta keep reading to see what Bush says, it's just awful.

Labels: Bush, bush sucks, Colombia, Ecuador, Oil, Venezuela, war

This is so crazy. Sometimes I think of how naive I am. It's still hard for me to believe how nasty and evil some people are.

What's awful is that we always talk about how we can't trust people anymore. Well in reality it's these people we can't trust. How can they live with themselves.

Let's trust our neighbors and lets get people in office we do trust.

October 2nd Albuquerque municipal elections. City Councilors are running for office. So let's get out to vote and get the right people in!

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by Amy Goodman

Karl Rove’s resignation as deputy White House chief of staff cements the political future of the waning Bush administration. George W. will have little to do except wield his veto pen; he doesn’t need the steadying hand of Rove for that, or his strategic insight. As Rove joins the ranks of discredited politicians who resign “in order to spend more time with family,” a retrospective of his dirty tricks might be in order. Much is attributed to Rove, dubbed “Bush’s Brain” by Texas journalists Wayne Slater and James Moore-yet very little sticks to the man. Bearing in mind that we presume innocence until guilt is proved, read on:

-In 1970, College Republican Rove stole letterhead from the Illinois Democratic campaign of Alan Dixon and used it to invite hundreds of people to Dixon’s headquarters opening, promising “free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing,” disrupting the event.

-In 1973, Rove ran for chair of the College Republicans. He challenged the front-runner’s delegates, throwing the national convention into disarray, after which both he and his opponent, Robert Edgeworth, claimed victory. The dispute was resolved when Rove was selected through the direct order of the chairman of the Republican National Committee, who at the time was none other than George H.W. Bush.

-In 1986, while working for Texas Republican gubernatorial hopeful William Clements, Rove claimed that Rove’s personal office had been bugged, most likely by the campaign of incumbent Democratic Gov. Mark White. Nothing was proved, but the negative press, weeks before the election, helped Rove’s man win a narrow victory. FBI agent Greg Rampton removed the bug, disrupting any attempt to properly investigate who planted it.

-When Rove was an adviser for George W. Bush’s 1994 race for governor of Texas against Democratic incumbent Ann Richards, a persistent whisper campaign in conservative East Texas wrongly suggested that Richards was a lesbian. According to Texas journalist Lou Dubose: “No one ever traced the character assassination to Rove. Yet no one doubts that Rove was behind it. It’s a process on which he holds a patent. Identify your opponent’s strength, and attack it so relentlessly that it becomes a liability. Richards was admired because she promised and delivered a ‘government that looked more like the people of the state.’ That included the appointment of blacks, Hispanics and gays and lesbians. Rove made that asset a liability.”

-After John McCain thumped George W. Bush in the 2000 New Hampshire primary, with 48 percent of the vote to Bush’s 30 percent, a massive smear campaign was launched in South Carolina, a key battleground. TV attack ads from third groups and anonymous fliers circulated, variously suggesting that McCain’s experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam had left him mentally scarred with an uncontrollable temper, that his wife, Cindy, abused drugs, and that he had an African-American “love child.” In fact, the McCains adopted their daughter Bridget from a Bangladesh orphanage run by Mother Teresa.

-According to the investigation of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, Rove played a central role in the outing of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak and former Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, in retaliation for the accusation by her husband, Joe Wilson, that the Bush administration falsely claimed Saddam Hussein had sought uranium in Niger.

-Rove has ignored subpoenas to testify before Congress about the Justice Department scandal stemming from the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. He skipped a hearing on improper use of Republican National Committee e-mail accounts by White House staffers that allowed them to skirt the Presidential Records Act. Rove claims he enjoys executive privilege, which travels with him as he leaves the White House.

These are but some of the dirty tricks attributed to Karl Rove. We are to believe that Rove, born Christmas Day, 1950, is retiring to write books. Former Texas Agriculture Commissioner and populist firebrand Jim Hightower describes Rove’s departure as “a rat jumping off a sinking ship.” But arch-Rove watcher Wayne Slater of The Dallas Morning News knows better. He notes that Rove and his wife have built a house in the Florida Panhandle-the “Republican Riviera”-and that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will be 59 in 2012, a ripe age for a run for the White House. Regardless, the art and science of the political dirty tricks, learned by Rove in the Nixon years and perfected by him in the George W. Bush White House, will be with us for years to come.

Denis Moynihan provided research assistance on today’s column.

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 500 stations in North America.

© 2007 Amy Goodman; distributed by King Features Syndicate

Labels: Bush, Corruption, Karl Rove

Senate Passes Ethics Reform Legislation

Bush Undecided On Signing Bill

BY CHARLES BABINGTON
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Senate sent President Bush a bill Thursday to make lawmakers pay for private plane rides and disclose more about their efforts to fund pet projects and raise money from lobbyists.

Some advocates called it the biggest advance in congressional ethics in decades, but Bush received it coolly. He has “serious concerns” about the measure and has not decided whether to sign it, said White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore.

Democrats, however, hailed the 83-14 Senate vote as proof they are fulfilling their 2006 campaign promise to crack down on lobbying abuses, which sent some lawmakers and a prominent lobbyist to prison. Like the House, the Senate passed the bill by a margin that would overcome a presidential veto, assuming no lawmakers switched sides.

Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. and Pete Domenici, R-N.M., both voted for the measure.

The bill would require lawmakers seeking targeted spending projects, or earmarks, to publicize their plans in advance. Lawmakers and political committees also would have to disclose those lobbyists who raise $15,000 or more for them within a sixmonth period by “bundling” donations from many people.

The Democratic-crafted bill would bar lawmakers from taking gifts from lobbyists or their clients. Former senators and very high-ranking executive branch officials would have to wait two years before lobbying Congress; ex-House members would have to wait one year.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, DCalif., called it “the most sweeping reform bill since Watergate.”

But several Republicans said it fell short of requiring full disclosure of earmarks, which have soared in number — and controversy — in recent years. Some earmarks fund popular civic projects that boost a lawmaker’s re-election prospects. Others help large contractors or other companies that hire lobbyists and donate to campaigns.

Bush feels the earmark disclosure requirements are “toothless,” Lawrimore said. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., agreed during the Senate debate.

The bill “has completely gutted the earmark reform provisions we overwhelmingly passed in January,” McCain said. He broke with former allies on ethics matters, including Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.

“By any measure,” Feingold said in the debate, the bill “must be considered landmark legislation.”

Under the bill, lawmakers seeking earmarks would have to publicize their plans 48 hours before a Senate vote. They would have to certify they have no direct financial interest in the items.

McCain said senators could circumvent the requirements by stating that timely disclosure was not technically feasible, or by having the majority leader declare a bill earmarkfree.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said it was ludicrous to suggest someone in his position would “cheat and lie” to hide earmarks.

The bill would require senators, and candidates for the Senate or White House, to pay full charter rates for trips on noncommercial planes. House members and candidates would be barred from accepting trips on private planes.

Labels: Bush, ethics reform

From an email...

Labels: Bush, Impeachment, New Mexico, roundhouse, State Legislature